I’m glad that I saw Newborn Theatre’s production of Teach Me. I hesitate to say that I enjoyed it, the subject matter is difficult and I doubt that audience enjoyment is what Rachel Gantz had in mind when she wrote it or what Victoria Urquhart had in mind when she directed it.
The play is set in the detention room of an all girls high school. Stacey (played by Jessica Brown) and Lauren (played by Mara Zigler) start talking about Mr. P (played by Robert Rainville) the math teacher, the only male teacher in the school.
Children’s theatre is such a tough needle to thread – amuse people of wildly varying tastes and intellectual abilities, sing, dance, don’t scare anyone so much they pee their pants. Every foray into a theatre with a kid is a bit of a crapshoot anyway, since their fears and likes and level of patience is so variable, and the line for Honest Aesop’s Fables was basically full of parents thinking “Please o please, gods of Fringe, let this go well!”
It takes a lot of commitment in putting together a one-person show where an actor plays multiple characters, sings and dances. This is the commitment Donna Greenberg took in her Toronto Fringe show Burnt …and toasted! but unfortunately there were many pieces missing and it didn’t quite work for me.
The musical show started with Greenberg doing a song and dance number which was a nice way to open the show. But she lost me once she started her dialogue that began with ‘Once upon a time…’. Greenberg takes us back into her past by walking back and forth across the stage trying to take on the different characters.
After watching your one woman show Everything I Need, playing at the Toronto Fringe, I wanted to run across the floor and give you a hug! I saw so much of my own struggles and triumphs in you that I am inspired, reaffirmed and motivated to go after the things I really want.
Seeing all the leading parts given away to other people, you realize that you’re “A princess who could save herself.” Every young girl needs to hear that. And every woman needs to believe it. We’re not alone in our struggles and we have everything we need to succeed. Thank you for showing us that.
